Archive for November, 2008
- roast turkey (22.5 lbs)
- corn bread stuffing (water chestnuts, whole cranberries, sliced almonds, celery, onion)
- mashed potatoes (new potatoes, skin on, lots of butter)
- sweet potatoes kittichai (mashed sweet potatoes plus coconut milk)
- mixed steamed fresh veggies (green beans, broccoli, broccolini, brussle sprouts, carrots)
- homemade cheese sauce (Sandra’s contribution)
- roast acorn and delicata squash (1 each, small, mostly for the novelty)
- Pillsbury Grands! rolls (hey, gotta take a shortcut somewhere)
- homemade cranberry sauce (made with orange juice and fresh orange zest)
- homemade pumpkin and mince pies, with homemade whipped cream
America Gets Rickrolled!
In case you don’t know, there is a trend on the internet known as Rickrolling:
Rickrolling is an Internet meme typically involving the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song “Never Gonna Give You Up”. The meme is a bait and switch: a person provides a Web link they claim is relevant to the topic at hand, but the link actually takes the user to the Astley video.
When a person clicks on the link given and is led to the web page he/she is said to have been “Rickrolled” (also spelled Rickroll’d). By extension, it can also mean playing the song loudly in public in order to be disruptive
So there I was, watching the Macy’s parade. The dopey Cartoon Network float is rolling by, and in the midst of whatever song they were doing, the whole things stops and out pops Rick Astley. I have not laughed that hard in at least a year.
Thanksgiving Day menu
We have family and friends coming over for dinner (actually, two of our grandsons have been here since Sunday; we’ve been having a great time with the Wii, the ping pong table, and the air hockey table), a total of 10 people. Here’s what I’m fixing for dinner:
Note that “homemade” for the pies means Pillsbury roll-out crusts, jarred mince filling, and canned 100% pumpkin filling (plus requisite sugar, spices, eggs, and condensed milk). I actually made a pumpkin pie from scratch many years ago (e.g., cut up and cooked the pumpkin, made the crust from scratch, etc.), and I decided it’s just not worth the time and effort.
This is a feast day, and a day for giving thanks. I was going to write a longer posting about the meaning of this day, but then I remembered that I did that last year, so just consider that post included by reference. In spite of the current financial turmoil, we still live in the land of greatest opportunity and freedom. And with our son still over in Iraq, we are especially mindful and grateful for all the sacrifices made for those freedoms. God bless us, everyone. ..bruce w..
What goes up must come down
Here’s a graph of US housing prices since 1975, both the stated prices and the same prices adjusted for inflation:
As you can see, once you adjust for inflation, housing prices have peaked and then fallen three times in the last 30 years.
I remember looking at a $35,000 house in the semi-rural area near Cherry Hill, New Jersey — five bedrooms plus a freestanding garage/workshop — in 1979. I didn’t buy it (and didn’t accept the job at RCA) because winter heating oil costs were around $300/month at a time when I was only grossing $1300/month. Oh, and inflation was moving towards double-digit values, as were mortgage interest rates. I remember all that quite well, which is why I’m not panicking about the current financial mess just yet. ..bruce w..
Wisdom from the past
I have recently been re-reading The Ancient State by Hugh Nibley and just this morning finished reading “The Hierocentric State” (originally published back in 1951 in Western Political Quarterly 4/2). The article itself suggests that key aspects of the vast nomadic cultures of Central Asia (e.g., the Mongols) were idealized and emulated by more sedentary civilizations to the east and west (e.g., China and Europe). But it was a passage in the final paragraph of the article that struck me as eerily reminiscent of the American political scene over the past year or two, particularly the Obama cult of personality. I’ve reformatted the text to better call out the separate links for each item (numbered in the original):
Men seem unable to leave the dream of a hierocentric state alone. To recapitulate the sections given above, we cannot blame people if they yearn for
(1) the granduer, color, and unity of the great assembly,
(2) the lofty and uncompromising certainty of universal kingship,
(3) the sense of refuge and well-being in the holy shrine,
(4) the high and independent life of a chivalrous aristocracy,
(5) the luxury of hating all opposition with a holy hatred, and
(6) the sheer authority of the institutions established and maintained by force. (pp. 133-134)
Food for thought. ..bruce w..
Yet another bailout request
Hell, this makes more sense than a lot of what Congress and the US Treasury are doing right now:
True fact: I own a Pets.com sock puppet. I keep it in my office to remind me of the idiocies of the late 90s Tech Bubble. Problem is, I’m not the one who needs reminding.
Hat tip to National Review Online. ..bruce w..
Daily Financial Moment Of Clarity
From the pages of Wall Street Journal via Greg Mankiw’s Blog, word of a sharp drop in the demand for mistresses for the rich and powerful:
Daily Financial Moment Of Clarity
Statistics from Option Armageddon (click chart for a larger view):
Any wonder that Citi needs a bailout?
Don’t screw with the Marines
About 250 Taliban insurgents took on 30 US Marines in Afghanistan.
The vicious attack that left the humvee destroyed and several of the Marines pinned down in the kill zone sparked an intense eight-hour battle as the platoon desperately fought to recover their comrades. After recovering the Marines trapped in the kill zone, another platoon sergeant personally led numerous attacks on enemy fortified positions while the platoon fought house to house and trench to trench in order to clear through the enemy ambush site.
“The biggest thing to take from that day is what Marines can accomplish when they’re given the opportunity to fight,” the sniper said. “A small group of Marines met a numerically superior force and embarrassed them in their own backyard. The insurgents told the townspeople that they were stronger than the Americans, and that day we showed them they were wrong.”
During the battle, the designated marksman single handedly thwarted a company-sized enemy RPG and machinegun ambush by reportedly killing 20 enemy fighters with his devastatingly accurate precision fire. He selflessly exposed himself time and again to intense enemy fire during a critical point in the eight-hour battle for Shewan in order to kill any enemy combatants who attempted to engage or maneuver on the Marines in the kill zone. What made his actions even more impressive was the fact that he didn’t miss any shots, despite the enemies’ rounds impacting within a foot of his fighting position.
“I was in my own little world,” the young corporal said. “I wasn’t even aware of a lot of the rounds impacting near my position, because I was concentrating so hard on making sure my rounds were on target.”
After calling for close-air support, the small group of Marines pushed forward and broke the enemies’ spirit as many of them dropped their weapons and fled the battlefield. At the end of the battle, the Marines had reduced an enemy stronghold, killed more than 50 insurgents and wounded several more.
Read the whole thing. Hat tip to Ace of Spades. ..bruce w..